Due to the increased needs for speed and band width in communication, particularly within mainframes, various computers and their subsystems, the use of semi conductor lasers is being increased. Accordingly, there is a significant need to reduce the size and footprint of not just a single laser on a semi-conductor substrate, but also an array of lasers.
It is well known that semi-conductor lasers of all types and particularly GaAs lasers are in and of themselves difficult and expensive to manufacture. Moreover, in order to increase band-width and speed, laser arrays which are to be produced must be produced easily and densely in order to justify their increased cost. Further they must be produced under strict process requirements, strict tolerance levels, and in decreasing size as well.
One of the problems with laser arrays is the practical aspects of bonding leads to the laser pads for power and control. Heretofore however, when manufacturing an array of lasers it has been contemplated that a second level of metal and submetals should be utilized for the simple reason that leadlines to all the various pin out pads could not be provided/fit on a single level semi-conductor substrate. Unfortunately, the use of a second level of metal or submounts adds significant cost to the process and labor while decreasing reliability and of course yield.
A number of schemes have been utilized to produce laser such as found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,124 "Planar Solid State Laser Array" issued Sept. 6, 1977 to Cumerford et. al. This reference forms optical lasers on a single chip using corrugation wherein the corrugation is chosen so that laser radiation exits from the array in a direction normal to the plane of the wave guide, which is generally undesirable. U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,007 "Injection Lasers with short active regions" issued Jul. 17, 1984, to Burnham et. al. discloses a plurality of lasers having staggered active regions. However, these and heretofore other related teachings are disadvantageous in that they are expensive to produce, require multiple levels of metalization, or simply do not allow for the density indicated by the present invention.
Accordingly, it is an object and intention of the present inventor to produce a semiconductor laser array utilizing a single level of metal thereby providing pads or pinouts directly adjacent thereto and which can be expanded to N number of lasers, where N is an integer.
Accordingly, it is an object and intention of the present invention to produce a semiconductor Laser array, comprising a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of light emitting lasers disposed thereon, at least one metal land emanating from each of the plurality of light emitting lasers, wherein each of the metal lands are disposed on the the same single level of the semiconductor substrate.